Health Insurance, or more formally know as Medical Insurance is a form of protection that can be used to cover medical costs arising from any health complications and/or accidents that you might experience. To put it simply, being under medical insurance coverage is akin to walking around with a giant invisible umbrella. If you break your leg in an accident tomorrow, you don't have to panic and worry about medical costs, all you have to do is lie back and relax on your hospital bed while your insurance company takes care of the associated costs. Sounds like a good deal right?

Unfortunately, insurance companies don't always cover everything. Within the mass of mile long terms and conditions associated with every medical insurance package lies a discrete list of coverage exemptions. Believe it or not, every medical insurance package comes with exemptions which can vary from just one or two simple scenarios to a detailed and complex checklist of exclusions. So don't set yourself up to be tricked, read on for our list of the five most common medical insurance exemptions.

1) Pre-Existing Conditions

More formally, a pre-existing condition is a medical condition that has occurred before the insured person began his/her medical insurance coverage. Pre-existing conditions are not covered by all medical insurance companies. So for example, if you were diagnosed with a terminal heart condition today and decided to sign up for medical insurance tomorrow then your heart condition would be considered a pre-exisiting condition and will not be covered by the insurance company.

Think about it, lets say that every terminally ill person in the world signed up for medical insurance the moment they found out they were sick and subsequently made claims on their medical bills 3 - 4 months later, if that was the case, then how would medical insurance companies turn a profit? Technically it would be impossible. They would get bombed by claim after claim after claim while receiving minimal or no premiums at all. In fact, if pre-exisiting conditions were covered by medical insurance companies then the industry as a whole would go bankrupt within a year.

Plastic surgery is generally considered an optional medical procedure and not a life saving one. This means that having or not having plastic surgery does not mean the difference between life or death.

For example, having a nose that makes you look like Grover does not mean that you're going to die, it just means that people will laugh at you when they see you. So while you might want to get surgery to correct that defect and subsequently enable yourself to live a more normal life, failing to change that one aspect of your appearance will not directly lead to you physical demise.

Always remember that medical insurance companies only cover conditions where medical attention is absolutely necessary and not situations where surgery is a luxury and/or can be entirely avoided.

3) Any Claims Within 30 Days

If you purchase a medical insurance package today, it doesn't mean that you are automatically covered immediately. While this may surprise you, medical insurance companies normally have a so called "cooling off" period right at the start of your coverage where you cannot make any claims whatsoever. The period usually lasts around 30 from the time that your coverage has begun. However, depending on the company, the time period may fluctuate.

Medical insurance companies do not implement the "30 day rule" to screw you over. The sole purpose of this rule is to protect the company from fraudulent claims by insured candidates who may have lied about pre-exisiting conditions in their application forms.

While this rule may seem like a travesty, there are extreme exceptions to the "30 day rule". For example, any incidences involving accidental injury (such as vehicle collision injury) might still be covered by some medical insurance packages. To be absolutely sure, you should always ask your medical insurance provider to clarify when your coverage actually begins and whether there are exceptions during the interim period where you are not provided with any coverage.

4) Dental Trips

While it may be important to visit the dentist once every 6 months, don't expect your trip to be covered by your medical insurance company. Similar to the case of Plastic Surgery, most medical insurance companies view dental visits and their typically associated procedures such as scaling & polishing for example, as a cosmetic expense and not a matter of life or death.

Though there is one clear exception to this rule, if the surgery pertains to a major medical condition such as an infected wisdom tooth or serious gum disease, then your medical insurance company might cover the cost. However, there are some medical insurance packages on the market that do not cover dental visits at all, no matter how severe the case! To avoid landing yourself in such a sticky situation, always ask your medical insurance officer whether the package you are interested in covers emergency dental visits and to what extend.

5) Claims Made While Breaking the Law

Got injured while robbing the bank? Call the ambulance! but don't call the medical insurance company, because they will not (under any circumstance) provide you with coverage if you get injured whilst breaking the law.

Medical insurance companies are designed to be there to cover you in your time of need, like when you get hurt or sick under accidental circumstances. If you role play as Jessie James and run off on a robbery rampage, then the medical insurance company (and probably society) will turn their back on you.

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